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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

This Site is the Only Place to Have This Interview, Mainly
Because the Mastermind Does Not Exist

Editor’s Note: The President has claimed that up to 5
million votes in 2016 were cast fraudulently and illegally, denying the
President a popular vote majority. And
no can dispute this allegation since whatever else he is, the President is a
strict truth teller and has never ever been know to lie, exaggerate, or even
make a statement that was not backed up 100% by facts. So the DPE made an exhaustive hunt for the
person who orchestrated the 5 million illegal votes and convinced that person
to sit down and answer questions. Here
is the interview, unedited and unabridged. (well it would be if it ever
happened). The Mastermind’s identity is
not revealed because we do not know who it is and the person does not exist.

The Mastermind without his disguise

DPE: What led you to
undertake the most massive voter fraud in history?

Mastermind: Well a
couple of us were sitting around, having a few Coors and someone said “betcha
you can’t arrange for 5 million illegal voters to vote” and I said, “betcha I
can”. We decided we would get 5 million
votes for Mitt Romney, but unknown to us he was not on the ballot. I guess we had more Coors than we thought we
did.

DPE: So who did you
arrange the votes for?

Mastermind: Why
Hillary of course. We knew she had Florida and Pennsylvania
and Michigan and Ohio
and North Carolina all sewed up, so we got 5
million un-registered voters to vote in New York
and California. Figured that would put her over the top.

DPE: Uh, didn’t you
get that wrong.

Mastermind: Like I
said, we had a few more Coors than we thought we did.

DPE: Where did the
illegal voters come from?

Mastermind: Mexico of
course. We just drove them all through
the porous border, you know without a wall you can easily bring in 5 million
illegal aliens in about 3 days from the Baja alone. All we had to do was tell border security
they were grape pickers for Trump’s vineyards and the guards said “Come on
through, we see you guys every year, no problem”.

DPE: And how did you
get them into vote?

Mastermind: Well I
can’t reveal the source but a nice foreign guy, name rhymes with “shootin”
hacked into the voter registration computers and got us the names of 5 million
dead folks still registered to vote. Then
we just told em we were them and they let us right in. None of them voter registration people even
questioned why 5 million voters could not speak English. They did question Maria Villias who claimed
to be Julius Greenblatt but Maria explained she was just practicing his Spanish.

DPE: You expect us to believe that a Mexican known as Maria was able to vote as Julius Greenblatt?

Mastermind: Well Trump did, see we are the secret evidence he has. We watched the Packers beat the Falcons with him, or least that's what he told us happened after the game. I think we had a few more Coors than we thought we did. Anyway he said the Packers win was reported on Fox News and you know how honest they are, so we bought that despite the dishonest main stream media which has it in for small towns and hard working mostly white folks that live in Green Bay.

"Conway claimed it was "flatly false" that Tiffany Trump was registered in two states, but election records in both Pennsylvania and New York show she is still registered as an "active" voter in both as of Thursday morning.

Conway cited a conversation with Trump's youngest daughter as evidence during an interview with Matt Lauer on the TODAY Show.

"She had been registered in Pennsylvania and went through the process, [and] said it was very byzantine and took a long time, but she said that she is not registered to vote in two states," Conway said of her conversation with Tiffany Trump.

A local election official also confirmed to NBC News on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning that she was still registered to vote in Philadelphia."

*Nickname given to Conway because as a spokesperson she lies like the old press people from the old Soviet Union.

Unknown to the DPE there is now something called premium water. And it is, or will be a big deal according to the WSJ.

PepsiCo Gives Its ‘Premium’ Water a Super Bowl Push

The company is introducing LIFEWTR, as bottled-water sales surpass those of soda in the U.S.

Wow, well what's the big deal. Well for Pepsi it is this.

"PepsiCo this month is beginning national distribution of LIFEWTR, priced at around $2.70 for a 1-liter bottle. . . . .

LIFEWTR is purified by reverse osmosis, and PepsiCo describes it as “pH-balanced with electrolytes added for taste.” The new brand’s most distinctive feature is its packaging: The clear plastic bottles will feature textured labels by emerging artists, including the street artist known as Momo, with new designs introduced every few months."

Yep, bottled water at a price with a quart more than the cost of a gallon of gasoline. American consumers, named the Smucks of the Year by people everywhere.

Ben Carson sailed through his confirmation process. WTF.

The Senate Banking Committee, which includes 11 Democrats, unanimously approved his nomination.

The future ex Secretary of HUD

Well look, this is probably the most unqualified person ever to head a federal agency, and we are talking about a history where 'Brownie' was in charge of FEMA during the hurricane fiasco in New Orleans. But the folks who voted for the Trumpman think he can do no wrong. So having Benny in charge of something will be Exhibit A and while his failure alone will not be enough to convince Trump voters than something is rotten in the state of Denmark the GOP, this will be a first step.

Monday, January 30, 2017

But They Could Have
Most conservatives have not publicly commented on the horrific fiasco that is the Trump immigration ban. They stick to the unwritten rule of modern conservatism as amended by the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal, which is:

If Our Person Does It, It's Great, if the Opposition Person Does It, It's Horrible and Anti-American Even if It's the Same Thing

So here is what leading conservatives were going to say, even though they did not say it.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan: "Of course it was okay to let people from Saudi Arabia in. They sent terrorists for 9/11 so they probably won't do that again.

Secretary of Education Nominee Betsy DeVos: "These immigrants would just end up sending their children to public schools, so they are better off living in fear for their lives in Syria than having to go to a middle school run by public employees."

Former NC Governor Pat McCrory: "You let these people in and the next thing you know they will all turn trans-gender and invade girl's bathrooms."

Secretary of Energy Nominee Rick Perry: There are three reason why we need to ban these people from our nation, but I can't remember them.

TaxCut Activist Grover Norquist: Well, if they take my pledge not to vote to raise taxes I would let them in. Oh, wait a minute they can't vote. Well they can vote in Donald Trump's imagination but I am not sure that counts."

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley: I am the daughter of immigrants so I know first hand how destructive letting them into the country would be. Okay, that doesn't make sense but then Trump knew I didn't know anything about immigration policy or foreign policy when he nominated me.

Rev. Franklin Graham, Son of Billy and Noted Islamaphobe: As a Christian nation comprised only of Christians and recognizing only the Christian religion it behooves us as good Christians to uphold Christian principles and send these people back to where they will be persecuted like all infidels should be. And I speak for all Christians on this.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin: This nation was not populated by immigrants, it was not built by immigrants and immigrants have contributed nothing to the nation's well being. We have never let immigrants into this nation and fortunately in Donald Trump we have a President who will not allow something like immigration to start. Oh, and I know the lamestream media will accuse me of ignorance on this topic but I can see Russia from my house and I never saw any immigrants come over from there.

The Trump
administration assault on foreign policy continued with UN Ambassador Nikki
Haley announcing that she is ‘taking names’ at the UN. She also said that if UN Security Counsel
members did not support Trump foreign policy, whatever that is, they would have
to stay in the building during recess and not be allowed to go to the school
dance on Friday. When asked if she knew
that the UN was not a junior high Ms. Haley did not reply, “Of course not, do
you think I would have gotten this job if I knew anything about the United
Nations?”

By banning entry into
the U. S. by certain groups Donald Trump boasted that he picked on the
weakest and most vulnerable of persons. “I
have it straight from ‘Bullying for Dummies’ that those are the type of people
you are supposed to pick on” he did not say.

The NFL has
volunteered to advise the Trump people on how to make Mexico pay for
the Wall, now being dubbed “Trump’s Folly” by opponents and supporters
alike. “If anyone knows how to extort
money from governments it is the NFL”
Commissioner Goodell was reported as not saying, “and look it’s only
about $12 billion. We force governments to pony up that amount for our billionaire owners on a daily basis, let us know
when you want to make Mexico
pay some real money”.

Kellyanne Conway,
known around the world as Commie Kelly because of her eerie resemblance to
former Soviet Union propaganda ministers is
being honored with the Pinocchio award by a renown government and ethics group
next week. The group also announced that
if Ms. Conway continues on her current path the award may be renamed the “Conway
Trophy” as more people will associate Kellyanne as a liar than do associate
Pinocchio as a liar.

Republicans held a
retreat last week and were taped.
Highlights of the meeting included legislators seeking advice from Gov
Chris Christie of New Jersey on the best way to suck up to Donald Trump (“when
you need expert advice go to the expert” Speaker Paul Ryan was not quoted as
saying ) and a recitation in unison of “Oh Shit” when informed that they had to
come up with a replacement for ACA as it turns out that true to expectations that Trump lied when he said he had a plan
almost ready to go.

Head of Britain’s
Conservative Party and Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly asked Trump in
their meeting to discontinue calling himself a conservative. She apparently was upset that he not only did
not know the meaning of the term, but continually misspelled it in his
tweets. In Trump’s defense advisor Steve
Bannon may have told the Prime Minister that spelling was not emphasized at TrumpUniversity
and that the President was just trying but failing to be less intelligent than his Secretary
of Education nominee.

Poland
is celebrating the arrival of the U. S. Army on its soil. What is not happening is any explanation of
why this is happening.

“Polish leaders celebrated the arrival
of U.S. troops Saturday as
part of a NATO deployment that has drawn criticism from Russia.

“We have waited for you for a very long
time,” Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said during a
ceremony in the western Polish town of Zagan,
the Associated Press reported.

Some 3,000 American troops are being
deployed in Poland and six
other countries under NATO's “Operation Atlantic Resolve,” which was launched
after Russia's takeover of Crimea in 2014.”

Wow, 3,000 troops, that will sure frighten the Red Army
under Vlad the Putin. Supposedly this
will punish Russia for
invading Ukraine,
but most of the damage will probably be the result of Putin laughing
uncontrollably. As for the U. S.
other than partly legitimizing an increasing autocratic Polish government this
is about as useless a military exercise as can be devised. But Poland has recovered nicely from WW
II and its control by Communism, so at least 3,000 troops will have a nice
time.

Sunday, January 29, 2017

Thanks
to David Leonhart of the NYT we have a lot of information about how well
colleges that target working class families are doing. It turns out they are doing pretty well by
their students.

An Upward Mobility Top 10

Colleges ranked by percent of
students from the bottom fifth of the income distribution who end up in the top
three-fifths.

1. New Jersey
Institute of Technology

85%

2. Pace

82%

3. CalState,
Bakersfield

82%

4. University of California,
Irvine

81%

5. Cal Poly Pomona

81%

6. Xavier of Louisiana

80%

7. Stony Brook

79%

8. San JoseState

79%

9. Baruch

79%

10. CalState,
Long Beach

78%

Limited to colleges with at least 500 students per class and at
least 10 percent of class coming from bottom fifth of the income distribution.

Of course none of these schools have a big time sports
program and at none of these schools is the football coach the highest paid
employee. Who are these students?

“Those college graduates have to
come from somewhere, of course, and most of them are coming from campuses that
look a lot less like Harvard or the University
of Michigan than like CityCollege
or the University of Texas at El
Paso. On these more typical campuses, students often
work while they’re going to college. Some are military veterans, others learned
English as a second language and others are in their mid-20s or 30s.”

This explains some of the reason that California, for example, is doing well despite high taxes which conservatives say should be killing the state. California is investing in people, not stadiums. But troubling is the decline in state support for these and
other state colleges and universities.

“The research does come with one
dark lining, however — one that should motivate anyone trying to think about
how to affect government policy in the age of Donald Trump. The share of
lower-income students at many public colleges has fallen somewhat over the last
15 years.

The reason is clear. State funding
for higher education has plummeted. It’s down 18 percent per student, adjusted
for inflation, since 2008, according
to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The financial crisis
pinched state budgets, and facing a pinch, some states decided education wasn’t
a top priority.

“It’s really been a nightmare,”
said Diana Natalicio, UTEP’s president and herself a first-generation college
graduate. “The state does not recognize — and it’s not just in Texas — the importance
that the investment in public education has for the economy and so many other
things. Education was for me, and for many of the rest of us, the great opportunity
creator.”

So there you go Trumpie, really want to make America better,
invest in college education for those families who actually think you will do
something to help them. But you ain’t
going to, are you.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has been among the voices saying Congress cannot repeal ACA without having a replacement in place. And now he puts his money (foot?) where his mouth is. His plan would produce affordable care by not covering any expenses.

"Republican Senator Rand Paul said he’s drafting legislation for a health-care insurance plan that could replace Obamacare, including a provision to “legalize” the sale of inexpensive insurance policies that provide abbreviated coverage.

“That means getting rid of the Obamacare mandates on what you can buy,” Paul said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Obamacare, which Republicans are moving to repeal, requires insurers to cover a number of procedures -- such as preventive care and pregnancy -- that Paul said drives up the cost."

Sen. Paul (not) laughing at the rubes that will buy his
health care plan

Yep that will be just great. And Paul is right, paying benefits does drive up the costs. Duh! Couples will not read the fine print and suddenly find they owe thousands for having a baby. But the great thing is that when preventive care is not covered people won't get preventive care and everybody's costs will go up. But the suckers that buy these policies, otherwise known as the Trump voters will be able to say they have health insurance even if it doesn't do anything.

Coal mine exec Don Blankenship was convicted of violating mine safety rules that ultimately resulted in the loss of life of 29 of his miners. A trial court found that for years Mr. Blankenship circumvented and ignored safety rules because it was cheaper to pay the fines than to fix the problems. Of course the loss of life for 29 miners was just an inconvenience to Mr. Blankenship, didn't hurt him in his nice executive office.

"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court affirmed the criminal conviction of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on Thursday in connection with the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in four decades.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the concerns of coal industry associations that Blankenship's conviction would set a new precedent putting many other coal executives at risk of being criminally prosecuted for common safety violations at their companies.

It was always the intention of Congress, the court said, to impose this risk and thus prevent mine operators from paying inexpensive fines rather than making expensive safety improvements.

The court said the evidence shows Massey was repeatedly cited for safety violations at West Virginia's Upper Big Branch coal mine before the 2010 explosion that killed 29 men. In 2009 alone, the U.S. Mine Safety & Health Administration identified 549 violations there, the court noted.

"Notwithstanding the numerous citations and warnings, defendant has a 'policy to invariably press for more production even at mines that he knew were struggling to keep up with the safety laws,'" Wynn wrote. Chief Judge Roger Gregory and Senior Judge Andre Davis agreed."

Blankenship's reaction to all of this, remorse? sorrow? asking for forgiveness? No.

"Blogging from a federal prison in California, he has called himself an "American political prisoner."

Does Blankenship feel anything for this woman? No, not really.

"He didn't get anything what he deserved," said Pam Napper, whose son, nephew and brother died. Her son left a 19-month-old daughter, who's now 9 years old and often asks what her father was like. "It was a slap on the hand."

Friday, January 27, 2017

Editor’s Note: The
President recently announced that he make Mexico
pay for the wall by imposing a 20% tariff on all goods imported into the U. S. from Mexico. In order to understand this, which is really
impossible, the DPE sat down with the key Trump economist responsible for the
plan. He is not named because he does
not exist.

DPE: Thanks for
talking with us. Did you come up with
this idea?

Ecoperson: No, Donnie
did. He comes up with all his ideas on
economics, he took a high school home economics class you know. Not to learn home economics of course, but to
grab the un-mentionable parts of the girls in the class.

DPE: So how will it
work?

Ecoperson: Simple,
every firm in America that
imports any products from Mexico
will be charged a 20% tax, payable into a fund to fund the wall. Anything left over will be used to throw a
really big party at Mar-a-Lago.

DPE: So how does Mexico end up
paying for the wall?

Ecoperson: Are you
kidding, of course they don’t. There’s
no way we can make a sovereign government pay for something we do. What are
you? The point is it will sound like Mexico is
paying for the wall and that’s really all we need for our voters. They are none to bright you know, but you
didn’t hear that from me.

DPE: So won’t these
firms just add that tariff onto the prices of their stuff they sell in this
country and so the U. S.
taxpayer will still end up paying for the wall?

Ecoperson: Well we
hope so, we sure wouldn’t want business to have to pay, that’s not right. But again nobody will see the charge and so
no harm, no foul.

DPE: You folks say
the tariff will raise about $10 billion, but U. S. imports are reported to be
around $300 billion so won’t this raise $60 billion?

We Will Not Be Satisfied Until We Have Sucked Every Dime Out of a Passenger Airline Thinks But Did not Say

It's not hard to forecast what a monopoly will do. Raise prices and cut quality of service. In the United States the major airlines are quasi monopolies. They have divided up the country and each one takes a piece of the domestic traveling pie. And now that they have the friendly skies of Republicans in power, people who will do nothing in part because of philosophy and in part because Congress gets to fly on private planes, American Airlines is moving to make flying as painful as possible.

American Airlines New Aircraft for its Basic Economy Service

"American has formally introduced its long-expected Basic Economy fare class, saying the fare type will first go up for sale this February in 10 “select markets.”

With that, all three of the USA’s biggest airlines have now introduced their own versions of a basic economy fare. Like at United, fliers buying American’s Basic Economy fare will only be able to bring onboard carry-ons small enough to fit under the seat in front of them. Delta, the first to introduce a version of basic economy, does not restrict carry-ons.

For American, carry-ons that must be stowed in overhead bins are not allowed -- though elite-level frequent-fliers and holders of certain American Airlines-branded credit cards will be exempted.

American's Basic Economy fares also will not allow changes -- not even for a fee -- and will make fliers among the last to board the plane. The fares will earn frequent-flier miles, but elite status will be earned more slowly for those buying Basic Economy. Seats will be assigned at check-in or can be selected within 48 hours of departure for a fee."

There's not much that anyone can do here, just hope for a new administration that will actually enforce the anti-trust laws and invite competition. That's something conservatives support, but just not the conservatives in power today. By 'conservatives' we mean real conservatives.

The House of Representatives Flim-Flam Man, Speaker Paul Ryan has talked about replacing ACA which provides for everyone to be able to obtain and afford health care with everyone being able to have 'access' to health care. Well after an expensive and exhaustive study the DPE has concluded that this goal has been met.

In the United States everyone has access to health care. That's right, if you are sick and need to see a health care worker, be it doctor, nurse, pharmacy, hospital or clinic, you can go right ahead and get it. Yep as long as you can fork over the funds, there will be a health care facility and personnel to treat you. And even if you don't have the funds you can still walk into the facilities and ask for health care. Of course, you won't get it, but that doesn't mean you don't have access to it if you did have the money.

He got in the door so he had 'access'!
He don't have the money so he don't
get health care. Not our fault says GOP

11
If you need prescription drugs, no problem. Just walk up with your prescription and hand over, say $80,000 for the necessary dosage and there you are. Don't have $80k, well too bad, take two aspirin and whatever you do don't call us in the morning. BUT YOU DO HAVE ACCESS!!!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

The problem with conservatism is not Conservatism. It is that intellectually dishonest people use conservatism as a convenient device to rationalize support for their own preferences and candidates. (See WSJ op/ed pages any day of the week.) And for most conservatives, whenever conservative principles get in the way of their own preferences they immediately disregard them. Hypocrisy rules the day (Note: Progressives are not immune either, just slightly less likely to throw their ideology overboard).

So it is refreshing to see Jeff Jacoby writing in the Boston Globe about the benefits of free trade and how conservatives should embrace it and reject the protectionism of Trump.

"When “Buy American” is mandated by law, it forces individuals and businesses to spend more for goods and services than they otherwise would have had to. It leaves them with fewer resources, and fewer resources means less growth, less affluence, less investment.

Protection will lead to great prosperity,” intoned Trump. But that’s just what protection won’t do. If Congress enacts Trump’s protectionist proposals and makes “Buy American” mandatory, whether through higher quotas, import quotas, or procurement restrictions, what follows? The price of baseball caps — and sneakers and cellphones and cars and grapes and lumber — will rise. As a result, fewer people will buy baseball caps (sneakers/cellphones/cars/grapes/lumber). Or they’ll buy them less often. Or they’ll buy less of other merchandise — including merchandise made in America by American workers whose jobs will be endangered by declining sales.

Protectionism amounts to the claim that everyone benefits when choices go down and prices go up. The only reason more Americans don’t dismiss that claim as self-evident crackpottery is because it comes cloaked in the language of nationalistic resentment. Such as Trump denouncing “the ravages of other countries making our products” and urging patriots to support him in “rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.”

Free trade is one of the basic tenets of conservatives. It is one of the basic principles of economics that free trade leads to higher income and more wealth for both sides. But many conservatives will refrain from challenging the war on free trade becausse it will mean challenging their leader, Mr. Trump. But this should not be the case, instead supporters of free trade should challenge its enemies and at the same time answer the creative destruction that free trade brings to those who suffer from it by saying the winners, those who gain, should help the losers, those who suffer through no fault of their own. In this way free trade is a win-win, which as Mr. Jacoby points out is exactly what happens in the macro sense.

"Yet if there is nothing unpatriotic with selling American-made products to Mexico or China, how can it be unpatriotic to buy products from Mexico or China? Trade is by definition a two-way proposition: Stifle imports and you stifle exports. The only way foreigners can acquire the dollars they need to purchase American goods and services is for Americans to buy their goods and services. The more we trade, the more we gain."

Donald Trump wants to make his son-in-law Jared (no he not the Jared from Subway currently in jail on child pornography related charges, quit saying that people) but there was some question as to whether or not this violates the anti-nepotism laws of the federal government. Turns out, it doesn't.

"In a reversal of legal advice given to prior presidents, the Justice Department has concluded that it is lawful for President Donald Trump to appoint his son-in-law Jared Kushner to a White House post.

A 14-page opinion dated Friday from Justice's Office of Legal Counsel asserts that a federal anti-nepotism law that applies to agencies across the executive branch does not cover the White House itself.

The anti-nepotism law dates to 1967 and is widely believed to have been aimed at blocking appointments modeled on President John Kennedy's nomination of his brother Robert as attorney general.

However, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Daniel Koffsky — a longtime career lawyer at Justice — concluded that another law passed in 1978 and conferring broad authority on the president to appoint White House officials essentially overrides the earlier anti-nepotism measure.

"We believe that the President's special hiring authority [in the 1978 law] permits him to make appointments to the White House Office that the anti-nepotism statute might otherwise forbid," Koffsky wrote in the opinion sent to White House Counsel Donald McGahn at his request."

See Trump, or any other occupant of the White House gets to decide who he wants advice from and who he wants to consult. And we understand that Trump wants the most unqualified people he can find around him so he doesn't look like a complete doofus. So go ahead Donnie, see how well Jared (no he's not the child porn guy) can make you look good by comparison. That's a tough job but we think a person has no, absolutely no government, policy making or public experience is up to the task. And if he's not, you always have Rick Perry waiting in the wings.

One of the many scandals of America is that this nation allows private companies to have monopolies on life saving phramaceuticals. Instead of having public financing of drug research so that the benefits are available to everyone, this country gives private for profit companies the right to be sole manufacturers of drugs necessary for people to live. And what does a private for profit company do with this power, well they maximize profit.

But CVS has stepped into one area and lo and behold . . .

The motto of the American pharmaceutical industry

"Last year the makers of EpiPen decided to raise their prices to astronomical levels, and why not. They had little competiton. But it turns out they did have some, and now CVS is teaming up with that competition to kick some butt.

The nation’s biggest drug store chain said the generic version of Adrenaclick – a tiny EpiPen competitor – costs $109.99 per two-pack. That compares to just over $600 a pack for the EpiPen and $300 for the generic EpiPen that local drug giant Mylan launched last month.

“We recognized the urgent need for a less-expensive epinephrine auto-injector, and are proud to offer a low-cost option,” CVS said in a statement. The Rhode Island-based company has some 9,600 stores nationwide.

The generic Adrenaclick, sold by Impax Laboratories in California, contains the same active ingredient to counteract life-threatening allergic reactions as the EpiPen, but uses a slightly different delivery system. The brand-name version of Adrenaclick is no longer manufactured."

The world of finance has a lot of very highly paid
investment managers who lose a very large amount of money. The
Financial Times has identified a Black Rock currency fund as the top loser.

”A BlackRock fund that aims to reduce currency risk for clients investing with
sterling was named as the worst-performing fund globally last year. It lost
43.9 per cent in 2016 and was hit by the UK’s vote to leave the EU, which
caused the value of the pound to plummet.”

Wow, surely Black Rock was pretty apologetic.

“A spokesperson for BlackRock said
its sterling fund was aimed at institutional investors and typically held as
part of a wider portfolio. “Given the steep fall in sterling last year, the
2016 fund return was in line with both performance expectations and the benchmark.”

Well, maybe not. But
not to worry, we are sure the fund managers got their seven figure salaries and
probably a nice bonus. At these funds
failure is not an option, or even a possibility. After all they did not lose 50%. And to lose 44% when the pound lost less
than 20%, well pretty impressive deserving of accolades.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers

Wow, finally. Of course in this case the lie was so blatant, so obvious, so stupid and so unsupported that they had no choice unless they wanted to participate in the non-journalism category of reporting that is, be Fox News.

"WASHINGTON — President Trump used his first official meeting with congressional leaders on Monday to falsely claim that millions of unauthorized immigrants had robbed him of a popular vote majority, a return to his obsession with the election’s results even as he seeks support for his legislative agenda."

President Trump met with leaders of Congress from both parties
on Monday at the White House.CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times

An extremely wealthy person who has never been to a public school, has never sent her children to public schools and probably has never even seen a public school has been selected as nominee for Secretary of Education in the Trumpet administration. This follows the philosophy of government that not only should cabinet members not know anything about the department and areas they will be heading, they should be actively opposed to federal activity in that area.

Now someone who is adamantly opposed to public schools, billionaire Betsy DeVos is probably going to be head of the Ed Department just as soon as a Republican Senate rubber stamps her nomination. But her comfirmation hearing did not go well, as she defended guns in schools by noting that a school has to protect itself against an attack by a grizzly bear.

"Decisions about firearms in schools should be left to local and state officials, DeVos said in response to a question from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). DeVos pointed to a rural Wyoming school that is surrounded by a fence to keep bears out. “I would imagine there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies,” she said."

Ok Bets, They look like danger to us.

Ok Betsy, we will give you that one. Any school that can demonstrate an attack by a grizzly bear is a real danger can have a high powered gun locked up in the principal's office. The rest of the schools the rule is 'no bear, no gun'.

And with respect to gun free zones, well this highly opinionated person had no opinion.

"Murphy — an advocate for gun control whose constituents include parents who lost children in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. in 2012 — asked whether DeVos would support Trump if he moves forward with his proposal, which he first made a year ago, to ban gun-free school zones."

DeVos said she would support “what the president-elect does,” and then added: “My heart bleeds and is broken for those families that have lost any individual due to gun violence.”
Well it's nice that her heart bleeds, which is of course a figure of speech, but someone ought to point out to her that at Sandy Hook real blood flowed from real children, something she's apparentlhy ok with in the name of the 2nd amendment, which as we all know protects the right of crazy people to buy a gun and shoot up an elementary school.

Donnie Trumpie gave the impression he was actually open to having Mitt Romney as Secretary of State, and so Mitt made the pilgrimage and tried to suck up enough to get the job. Turns out it was all a scam.

"At a dinner at the sumptuous Mellon Auditorium in Washington on Tuesday night to honor the inaugural committee’s chairman, Thomas Barrack Jr., Mr. Trump said he had always wanted Mr. Tillerson, implying that the rest was for show. He called him the “man that I wanted right from the beginning.”

Don't worry Mitt, there's always next time for Lucy (Trump) to pull the football away from Charlie Brown (Mitt).

NFL team owners, all of whom are very, very wealthy engage in extortion to get taxpayers to pay part of the costs of their football stadium or for infrastructure improvements necessary to make the stadiums usable. This is despite the fact that NFL operations create very little employment and the stadiums are used, maybe 10 to 15 days a year and the fact that ticket prices make games out of reach for the very taxpayers who ponied up the money.

Now San Diego has let its football team leave rather than pay hundreds of millions for a new stadium.

Nice going San Diegans, you are smart people. Not like the people of Atlanta, where it seems a new stadium of some sort gets built every couple of decades despite the fact that it is not needed. Case in point is the city's new football stadium, smack in the middle of one of the most impoverished areas in the south.

"The view through the windows at the other end of the building tells a very different story, one that many fans go out of their way to avoid: English Avenue and Vine City, two of the poorest neighborhoods in the Southeastern United States. Home to drug dealers, swaths of empty plots and abandoned houses, they are part of the Westside, where 42 percent of the households are in poverty and the unemployment rate is twice that of the rest of Fulton County.

The stadium’s place in that chasm between rich and poor is an uncomfortable reminder of the disconnect between the vast wealth of the N.F.L. and the cities to which they extend open palms. Immensely wealthy team owners, backed by a $13 billion-a-year league, routinely push local lawmakers to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies that, they claim, will pay for themselves through the creation of new jobs, new tax revenue and the intangible prestige of professional sports (the new stadium will host the Super Bowl in 2019.)"

But what's the real story on those benefits?

Arthur Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons. His family’s foundation has donated $20 million for community improvements near the Falcons’ new stadium.CreditKevin D. Liles for The New York Times

Yeah, invest $20 million, get $200 million from taxpayers. What a deal for the city!

"The Falcons have been no different, getting a minimum of $200 million in hotel-motel taxes out of the city for the construction of the stadium, and potentially hundreds of millions more for its upkeep.

But rarely does such public investment do much good for the areas around these mammoth stadiums. Such venues effectively blot out a part of the neighborhood when not in use, reducing foot traffic and fraying the fabric of the community. Even when stadiums do draw big crowds, ticket holders spend little of their money at local businesses."

And where is the political leadership? Oh, sitting in luxury boxes oblivious to the pain and suffering around them.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

A coalition of Republican lawmakers said that they were
opposed to solar energy because, in their words, using sunlight for solar
energy reduces the sunlight that humans need in order to survive. “There’s only so much sunlight” one said, “and the more that is used for
solar panels the less for those who need it the most.”

Donald Trump said that of course there is no negative
material Russia
has on him, because, as he put it “I’m a lying, cheating real estate developer who has
admitted to sexually assaulting womin. I
mean what else is there to say”.

Trump cabinet appointees were heard congratulating
themselves on fooling Senate committees into thinking they opposed many of
Trump policies. “I can’t believe they
bought it” said one nominee who went on to say “where would we be without a
press that doesn’t care about government and wants to fixate on Meryl Streep.”

The University
of Alabama announced
today that it was doing an IPO for its football program. The school expects to use the proceeds to
complete the total and complete removal of football from any academic
association with the University.

HUD Secretary designate Ben Carson just said that he was
unaware that the Department initials stood for Housing and Urban
Development. He said he thought the
Department HUD meant Help Understand Donnie, and that he would do whatever it
took to explain Trump's health care policy to the nation as soon as there was
one.

Russia
today admitted that it hacked the election process in Podia county Kentucky to
elect a recently deceased dead woman to the Pollution Advancement Board. When asked why they did it a Russian official
said “No reason, we could so we did.”

More fallout from Brexit occurred when Parliament voted to
rename French Toast and call it Freedom Toast.

As part of their policy to make the news reporting more
neutral and less favorable to Republicans the major networks agreed to limit
Kellyanne Conway appearances to a ratio of 20 of her to 3 of the other
side. This is a huge improvement over
the past policy of 50 Kellyanne appearances to one glimpse of Chuck Schumer
leaving his office.

A petition signed by over 200,000 low income Trump voting Iowans said they supported repeal of the ACA
as long as they continued to receive all of their benefits under the law.